


Yours to Miss

by zinke



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M, Fic amnesty, Missing Scene, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-02-04
Updated: 2009-02-04
Packaged: 2018-09-17 06:03:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9308579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinke/pseuds/zinke
Summary: For the first time in years, Bill wishes he had the luxury of living only for today.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to survival instinct.net on February 4, 2009.
> 
> This little thing – a cut scene from an early version of 'Pandora's Box' – would still be wasting away on my hard drive if not for an innocuous question posed by chaila43. Whether that is a good or bad thing, I will leave up to y’all to decide. *g* Thanks go as always to caz963 and nnaylime for their suggestions and advice.

For the first time in years, Bill wishes he had the luxury of living only for today. 

Lying here under the untroubled stars with the faint sound of music and laughter drifting on the breeze and the warmth of Laura’s body tucked against his side, it would be so easy to simply give in, to press his lips to hers and let the chips fall where they may.

The realization both tempts and taunts him and unconsciously, he pulls Laura even more tightly against him, flattening his hand against the gentle curve of her hip as he relishes her answering, contented sigh.

Long ago he swore an oath, pledging his life to a greater purpose and never in his more than forty years of military service has he turned his back on his duty. Men like him don’t get the chance to live only for today; it’s the only way he and others like him can ensure that the people they protect get to do that very thing.

And yet tonight, he just can’t seem to get the idea out of his head. Of course, the added distraction of Laura’s gently insistent fingers feathering through his hair certainly isn’t doing his smoke-addled conscience any favors.

Maybe she was right; hell, it wouldn’t be the first time. He, like every one of the celebrants here, has been the beneficiary of her prudence and wisdom more times than he can count; all of them, and the generations that will come after, owe their lives to this remarkable woman – a fact he wishes more of them had bothered to remember while casting their vote for Gaius frakking Baltar.

“What are you thinking?” The soft, teasing lilt of her voice is something with which he’s become intimately familiar over the past year, and hearing it now he can’t help but smile at the irony of it all. Not so long ago, if someone had told him he’d be lying here like this with Laura Roslin, he’d have sent them to Doc Cottle to have their head examined. 

As he thinks back to that first awkward encounter between them and the overwhelming contempt he had felt in the face of her unflappable, insistent demeanor, it all feels so foreign to him. Right now, he can’t imagine wanting to be anywhere or with anyone else. 

“It’s time to start making babies,” he murmurs absently, the words slipping past his lips like sand through his fingers.

Laura chuckles softly and plucks playfully at one of the buttons of his uniform jacket. “I hate to break it to you, but I’m a little old to be embarking on that particular endeavor. Then again,” she adds thoughtfully a moment later, “maybe we really should just…enjoy this.” 

Turning his head, Bill studies her face in an attempt to gauge her state of mind. Laura, for her part, merely gazes back at him with a maddeningly inscrutable expression. “What exactly is it we’re talking about, here?”

“I don’t know Bill,” she drawls seductively as she pulls herself flush against him and slides her leg slowly across his thigh. “Why don’t you tell me.”

The invitation is clear and suddenly, so is his decision.

Tonight, tomorrow, next week, next year; as he leans in and covers her mouth with his, he decides that none of it really matters.

All that matters now is this moment with her, and the fact that once again, much to his consternation and delight, Laura had been right.

 

*fin.*


End file.
